New Call to support Next Phase Projects for Vulnerable Populations facing exclusion from Health Systems

Deadline: 21-Jan-2025

This call is designed to support next phase projects that build on previous Initiative funding, aiming to strengthen the role of key and vulnerable populations who often face exclusion from health systems.

It backs initiatives co-created with these communities, especially young girls and women, who represent a significant portion of new HIV cases and are highly vulnerable to malaria and tuberculosis. Promoting their health and well-being through targeted prevention and empowerment efforts is critical in combating major pandemics.

Aims

• This call is focused exclusively on the series of projects aimed at strengthening the role of key and vulnerable populations. L’Initiative intends to continue its support to interventions and approaches that have demonstrated effectiveness and for which a next phase grant would enable the results achieved to be deepened or scaled up.
• Supported projects may fall into one or more of these categories. Next phase projects are those that are supported for a second phase or more, that focus on:
  • Integration by national policies (strategic plan, health program, integration into the health system); and/ or by funding from the Global Fund or other donors.
  • Activities being replicated and adapted for other beneficiaries and/or expansion to other regions/districts/cities.
  • Going more in depth with the approach developed.
  • Trans Transferring to a local lead implementer.
  • Continuation project.
• The proposed interventions will target the following beneficiairies – applicants do not have to reach all the population groups, or address all the multiple areas of vulnerability:
  • Key populations: key populations are those most at-risk or affected by at least one of the three diseases and who are stakeholders involved in the response. They generally have reduced access to services and may be criminalized and/or marginalized.
  • The following groups are generally considered to be key populations:
    • For HIV: people living with HIV, men who have sex with men, male and female sex workers and their clients, transgender people, people who use drugs and their partners, people in prisons or detention centers, refugees, migrants, displaced or mobile populations.
    • For tuberculosis: people living with HIV, people who use drugs, people in prisons or detention centers, refugees, migrants, displaced or mobile populations.
    • For malaria: pregnant women and children under five, indigenous populations living in regions where malaria is endemic, refugees, migrants, displaced or mobile populations.
  • Other vulnerable populations: populations that are more vulnerable in a particular context and that do not fall into the categories mentioned above, including, children and adolescent girls, young girls and women and people living with disabilities.
  • Under this call for proposals, L’Initiative will therefore be particularly focused on the promotion and prioritization of measures aimed at:
    • Capacity and skills strengthening of national and community actors: There will be a specific focus on the design of education-based activities, in particular by ensuring the analysis of initial needs, the design and monitoring of training including on the ground training, the quality of training provided, consolidation of knowledge, assessment of targeted skills and the involvement of beneficiaries at all stages and levels of the project.
    • Developing population empowerment strategies to increase the impact of health policies and services, and support services adapted to the needs of key and vulnerable populations.
    • Developing and implementing tailored and targeted advocacy plans for systematic consideration of the needs of key and vulnerable populations in the project’s intervention strategies: L’Initiative encourages lead applicants to: assess and encourage the development of countries’ legislative frameworks, if necessary, to document cases of human rights violations.
    • Effective involvement and representation of key and vulnerable populations in coordination and decision-making mechanisms.
    • Promoting community-based approaches by and for key and vulnerable populations in order to provide them with appropriate services at community level, by mobilizing peer educators, community health workers (CHWs), task shifting or developing outreach interventions (mobile facilities, etc.). Implementing approaches to improve the status and remuneration of CHWs in projects is encouraged.
  • All sexual and reproductive health and rights activities related to the three pandemics and following themes (non-exhaustive list): human papillomavirus (HPV) and associated cancers or any other sexually transmitted infection, combating gynecological and obstetric violence or sexual mutilation, menstrual hygiene, accessibility/quality/availability/acceptability of contraceptive/family planning products and services (including access to safe abortion), comprehensive sexuality education.

Funding Information

• The total requested grant amount must cover at least 50% of the project budget and be between €650,000 and €3,500,000.

Duration

• Project duration must be between 36 and 48 months.

Eligibility Criteria

• It must be submitted submitted by a lead applicant, in collaboration with “implementing partners” or “associate stakeholders:
  • The “lead applicant” is the organization that submits the letter of intent and completes the full proposal if they are pre-selected. Lead applicants are the sole recipients of L’Initiative grants and shall be individually responsible vis-à-vis Expertise France for implementation of the Project.
  • The “lead applicant” is the organization that submits the letter of intent and completes the full proposal if they are pre-selected. Lead applicants are the sole recipients of L’Initiative grants and shall be individually responsible vis-à-vis Expertise France for implementation of the Project.
  • The lead applicant must have been legally registered for at least 3 years at the time of project submission.
  • Lead applicants and implementing partners must not have any statutory provisions that prevent Expertise France, or any external auditor appointed by Expertise France, to carry out on-the-spot checks and inspections and have relevant rights to access the project sites and premises where the project will be carried out, including access to all documents and electronic data relating to the technical and financial management of the project.
• Be implemented in one or more of the 38 eligible countries listed below:
  • Algeria, Benin, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Ivory Coast, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominican Republic, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Laos, Lebanon, Liberia, Madagascar, Morocco, Mauritius, Mauritania, Mozambique, Myanmar, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra, Leone, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia, Ukraine, Vietnam.

For more information, visit L’Initiative.